1500 people gathered at the State Library on Saturday March 13 to demand equal marriage rights for same sex couples. The protestors then marched through the city to the Registry Office on Spring Street.
The rally’s atmosphere was vibrant and energetic. People from the LGBTI community marched side by side with heterosexual people to protest against [...]

A socialist analysis
There is growing debate in Australia about population growth and its alleged impacts on the economy and the environment. The Federal government has argued for a population increase to 35 million by 2050 (up from the current level of 21 million). These calls have been backed by various employer organisations as a [...]

SP Newsletter No.301
In early February thousands of people took part in Melbourne’s annual Pride March. This march symbolises the efforts of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community and a movement that has struggled for decades to win sexual equality and challenge homophobia.
But why is it that despite widespread support for the LGBTI [...]

SP Newsletter No.300
The Labor Government is planning to force all Australian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to filter internet traffic and block any ‘inappropriate’ material. Under the guise of ‘protecting children’ the Government plan is set to censor thousands of internet sites.
The announcement by Senator Stephen Conroy comes only nine months after a leak of [...]

Around 1600 workers took industrial action at Woodside’s Pluto Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in January over changes to their accommodation. Woodside wanted the workers to change rooms at the end of each rostered work cycle instead of getting their own permanent accommodation for the duration of the project.
By David Suter, Socialist Party Perth

SP Newsletter No.298
The closure of the Tote Hotel in January shocked music fans across Melbourne. For more than 20 years the pub has been at the centre of Melbourne’s live music scene.
Since then the Arthouse has announced it will close this year and several other venues have complained that they can no longer afford to [...]

SP Newsletter No.297
Just before Christmas there were important developments on the Atherton Gardens public housing estate in Fitzroy (Melbourne). The estate is made up of four 20-storey towers and several two storey ‘walk-up’ blocks. Officially there are 2500 residents, but the true figure is probably closer to 4000.
Residents have been complaining for years about inferior [...]

Only days after his December 1st announcement that a second surge of 30,000 troops would be sent to Afghanistan, US President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. According to Obama, “Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: the United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than [...]

SP Newsletter No.296
Recent opinion polls have shown that support for an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) remains at just over 70%, despite 70% of respondents admitting they “don’t know enough” about Rudd’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).
This coincides with 76% of Australians being ‘concerned’ about climate change, with over half the population seeing it as a [...]

On Wednesday December 23 asylum-seeker George Jacob Samuel Christin died. Christin was one of the 254 Tamil asylum-seekers facing horrific conditions in the Indonesian port of Merak. A spokesman for the asylum seekers said Christin was showing signs of severe illness, but was “neglected by the IOM (International Organisation for Migration) and the Indonesian navy”. [...]